Fill Her Up Please-With Water

2 May 1958

The ratepayers of Dublin are in business, says the “HERALD”. Man with the Inquiring Mind-exporting water of all commodities!
Fill Her Up Please-With Water
I had the telephone directory in my hand, and I was running my finger down the long list of departments under the heading “Dublin Corporation” when the entry “Shipping Turncock” stopped me with a jerk. I knew that running a big city was a complex task but it did seem to me to be a land-based job and the Corporations connection with ships seemed a bit hard to find. This time my curiosity was really aroused and I put through an Inquiry to the City Hall. I always find them very helpful up on Cork Hill—they even run a free reminder service for citizens, who are getting a bit behind with their rates payments. As usual, I got every help to find my quary and l found myself back at the Waterworks Head-quarters once more.
Core of Dublin
Every time I go up into the area around Christchurch Place mind runs back over the two thousand years or so during which this spot was the core of Dublin. Even if I hadn’t civic history in mind when I called into the Waterworks Engineer, I would have been reminded of it as soon as I mentioned the purpose of my call.
Almost every service operated by the Corporation seems to be merely a present-day extension of rudimentary functions exercised .by the. City Fathers at some earlier period in Dublin’s long history.
So it is with the city water supply and in the course of finding out who is the Shipping Turncock and what he does I found out a bit more about the water supply of grand father’s day just before the Vartry scheme brought pressurised water supplied to the growing suburbs of Dublin.
Back of pipes
At. that :time the old Blessington Basin was a surface reservoir; led from: the Royal Canal. Filled in some years ago the Basin supplied low pressure water to the outside-taps and ground level tanks of the houses on the north side of the city and. a. small’, supply down to the dock area. Tlie Poddle was nipped and fed into another Basin behind the convent at ‘the -Grand Canal Harbour in James Street..
Even today if you inquire at Dolphins Barn for “The Back of the pipes” you will be directed to the lone footpath running our to the Canal bank at the back of St. Kevin’s Hospital.
The basin served the portion of the city between the South Circular Road and the Liffey.
I can remember seeing in the basements of old houses in the city iron-handled pumps long disused. These were used to pump from the basin-fed supply to the household cisterns in upper parts of the houses. The basin pressure was not high

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